By Dean Poling
Many folks still enjoy watching “The Andy Griffith Show,” but Sammy Sawyer can claim watching these beloved reruns as part of his job.
Sawyer has made a career of performing as Don Knotts’ Deputy Barney Fife. Next weekend, Sawyer returns to South Georgia as Barney for Brother Benny Daniels’ “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” 28th Anniversary Celebration Gospel Sing and a church appearance.
“I have a good excuse to watch the show,” Sawyer says in a recent phone interview of “The Andy Griffith Show.” “I tell my wife I’m doing background work on Barney.”
So, how does a person become a TV character?
For Sawyer becoming Barney was a slow, even a life-long, process.
For starters, his father was the police chief of a small Tennessee town at a time when “The Andy Griffith Show” was at the height of its success. His dad had a slight build like Barney Fife and had some of Barney’s mannerisms, Sawyer says.
“He was more like Barney than I’ll ever be,” Sawyer says of his dad. “He wasn’t a comedian. He was like Barney in that he wasn’t trying to be funny. But he would say some of the funniest things you’ve ever heard.”
Sawyer uses his father’s pistol in his performance — a Smith & Wesson Model 10 similar to the type Don Knotts carried as Barney Fife.
Sawyer’s career as a performer originally included Barney as part of his act. But Sawyer’s Barney proved popular and became more and more part of the show as well as a ministry.
In the early 1990s, Sawyer and some friends created a live show called “A Mayberry Christmas,” based on parts of the television series’ holiday episode. It gained a big audience, and Sawyer’s Deputy Fife continued. He met Don Knotts on a few occasions. He’s traveled many places as Barney Fife, including a Lowndes County stop several years ago.
Between then and now, he curtailed some of the travel but continued being Barney. Sawyer performed as Deputy Fife in an on-going Mayberry theatre show at Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Sawyer is glad to be out of the same theatre each night and back on the road.
Still, he admits Barney works better in a cast of other Mayberry characters than he does on his own.
“Barney’s good in small doses,” Sawyer says, adding that Barney’s funny to watch on TV but wouldn’t necessarily be an easy person to know or deal with on a regular basis.
“Andy tolerated a lot of stuff from Barney,” Sawyer says. “Andy even allowed Barney to look like the hero, which was just one of the great things about that show.”
So, when he plays Barney alone on stage, he keeps it at under an hour and brings people from the audience into the routine. An audience member, for example, may be tapped to play Otis the town drunk or mechanic Gomer Pyle.
Sawyer also brings a message during his Barney Fife performance for events such as the gospel sing. He uses lessons from “The Andy Griffith Show” to impart wisdom from the Bible.
Still, almost everyone loves Barney. And if a crowd wants Barney then Sawyer is just the man to nip that desire, nip it in the bud.
SEE BARNEY
Sammy Sawyer’s Barney Fife joins gospel performers The Bibletones, Buddy Johnson, The Johnson Two, and Colbert & Joyce Croft for Brother Benny Daniels’ “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” 28th Anniversary Celebration Gospel Sing.
When: 6 p.m. Saturday, May 16.
Where: Mathis City Auditorium, 2300 N. Ashley St.
Admission: Free and open to the public.
ALSO: Sammy Sawyer’s Barney appears 11 a.m. Sunday, Naylor Baptist Church, Naylor.
More on Sammy Sawyer, visit his Web site: www.bfife4life.com
